Helios had stopped crying, but she was still clinging tightly to Starlight, seemingly unable to pull herself together just yet.
It wasn't until Starlight watched Daiichi Ruby and K.S. Miracle leave the café, chatting and laughing, that Helios finally lifted her head.
"Starlight-chan~"
Seeing this, Starlight reached out gently and wiped away the stray teardrops still clinging to the corners of the other girl's eyes.
"What exactly happened? Did Ruby and the other girl say something bad about you?"
Daitaku Helios shook her head. "No..."
"Then, did Ruby say she hated you?"
After a long pause, Helios gave a stiff nod. "Something like that."
Taking a deep breath, Helios swept away her previous gloom. Her eyes fixed determinedly on the latte sitting on the table.
Without a word, she grabbed it and began gulping it down through the straw.
"Wait— "
Unfortunately, she moved too fast, and Starlight's warning came a second too late.
After draining more than half the cup in one go, Helios let out a satisfied burp and leaned back against her chair, patting her stomach.
"Ah~ I feel much better. Anyway, what were you saying?"
"Um... I'd already started drinking that latte."
"Ha!?"
Helios froze instantly. After a long moment, she stammered, "Th-then why didn't you stop me just now?"
"Take a guess as to why you just had to ask me what I was saying."
"W-Whatever! It's fine, I definitely don't care!" With a flush creeping across her face, Helios crossed her arms and blurted out the stubborn remark while averting her gaze.
"Mm... as long as you don't mind. So, why were you so sad? Can you tell me?"
"Ugh! That gift I went out of my way to give her... it turned out to just be a common accessory she put on casually so she could go see someone else..."
As the words left her mouth, Helios's mood plummeted again.
In the end, she wasn't truly sad about Ruby's actions, she was simply feeling miserable about her own perceived lack of value and significance in the other's eyes.
Slowly standing up, Helios pulled some money from her pocket and placed it on the table. She then hung her head and began to run off.
"Sorry, Starlight-chan. I'm not in the mood to play anymore. Here's the money for the latte and the snacks. I'm heading back."
Watching her somewhat dejected figure, Starlight wanted to call out to her, but it was too late.
"Sigh... what a mess. Whatever, I'll let her be alone for a bit. I should head back too."
The scene shifted. Starlight pushed open her dorm room door, and the virtual subtitles appeared before her eyes.
[Detection complete. Decision made: Option 2. Reward: Starlight (Gal Mode) Form.]
The moment she saw the reward, Starlight's eyes widened. "Eh? Do I have an event skin too!?"
Whoosh—
No sooner had she voiced her amazement than several faint glows surfaced around her. They were warm and soothing.
More and more lights began to converge, eventually merging into Starlight's body. The whole scene looked like an incredibly cool magical girl transformation.
Nearby, Kameda-kun and the group of cats watched on, completely stunned.
A moment later, as the light gradually dissipated, Starlight slowly opened her eyes. She looked at her hands and then at her clothes, which hadn't changed at all.
"What gives!? Nothing changed— "
"Wait, it feels like my field of vision got wider!"
Realizing she might have missed the obvious, Starlight hurried to the bathroom mirror. When she saw her reflection clearly, she couldn't help but be stunned by her own beauty.
Although her casual clothes remained the same, her skin had become noticeably fairer and more supple than before.
Her hairstyle was no longer the style where thick bangs covered her face, instead, her eyes were now visible, and her bangs were parted, reaching just down to her eyebrows.
Those golden hexagram-star eyes appeared even brighter. Looking at the rest of her hair, she now had simple twin buns tied on either side, roughly at the level of a normal person's earlobes.
Below the two buns, about two or three small braided pigtails hung down. Her hair color had shifted from its previous dull gray to a much brighter, vibrant silver.
The tips of her hair and her bangs now featured a subtle pale-gold gradient. A very conspicuous black-and-silver cross earring was clipped onto her horse ear.
She looked cool and dashing, radiating an inner sense of sacredness and gentleness.
"Is this me? Is this really me— !?"
Snapping back to her senses, Starlight pressed her face right up against the mirror. She admired the look for a long time, even taking several photos, before the excitement finally began to simmer down.
After reverting to her original "NPC" form, she let her hair down and changed into her pajamas.
"Alright, when I go to training tomorrow, I'll transform into that form to give Trainer a surprise."
Lying in bed, Starlight suddenly smacked her forehead, nearly forgetting about Helios's situation.
"I remember Ruby is in the Senior High division too. I'll go look for her the day after tomorrow. Helios is one of my few friends, I can't let her stay sad forever."
With those thoughts in mind, Starlight drifted off to sleep. Although the day had been a bit chaotic, it ended on a good note.
The Next Morning
Clutching her briefcase and jogging toward the training grounds, Kiryuu Inami looked a bit disheveled.
"Oh no, I'm going to be late, I'm going to be late!"
Upon arriving at the designated meeting spot, she bent over with her hands on her knees, panting for breath.
"Sorry, sorry, Starlight-chan! I think I'm late... eh? Starlight-chan?"
"I'm over here, Trainer."
Seeing her looking around frantically, Starlight— who was leaning against a tree— waved her hand with a smile.
Following the voice, Inami's eyes suddenly lit up. She was completely stunned.
Standing there was a silver-haired Uma Musume in a red and white training uniform, her hairstyle sweet and her gaze gentle, waving at her with a smile.
'She's... she's so beautiful...'
"Wait! You're— Starlight?"
Finally reacting, Kiryuu Inami stared with her purple eyes, a look of utter disbelief on her face.
"That's right. Why? Do I look that different from before?"
"...Of course you do! It's like night and day!"
Inami hurried over to Starlight, carefully sizing up the Uma Musume from head to toe.
"Is that so? Hearing Trainer say that makes me happy. I was worried about whether it looked good or not," Starlight said with feigned uncertainty, suppressing the joy in her heart.
"No, no, no! Starlight, have some confidence. You look wonderful like this."
"Thank you for the compliment. Well then, Trainer-san, who is late... I dressed up specifically and waited here for you for quite a while."
Slowly leaning forward, Starlight brought her face close to Inami's flustered one.
"Wh-what are you trying to do?"
"When training ends this afternoon, I'm sentencing you to go eat ice cream with me. Your treat. How about it?"
Her tense body suddenly relaxed, and Inami pushed up her crooked glasses. "No problem, Starlight. My treat."
"Eh, Trainer, your face is turning red— "
"Ah, i-is it?"
"Mm-hmm. Could it be you're thinking about something strange?"
"I am not! I just got a bit nervous because you suddenly got so close."
"Hehe, I'll stop teasing you. Let's start training."
Setting the weights on her wristbands to Level 2, Starlight finished her warm-up and began the day's session.
It was technically still a holiday, but to improve her strength as quickly as possible, Starlight had discussed adding an extra day of training with Inami.
The Trainer naturally had no objection, if her Uma Musume requested extra practice within a reasonable range, she was happy to oblige.
Soon, afternoon arrived.
After finishing her final 3,000-meter interval run, Starlight immediately reverted to her "NPC" form. She lay on the ground, gasping for air.
When Inami walked over and saw the gray hair and the bangs covering Starlight's eyes again, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of disappointment.
However, she didn't say it aloud. She picked up a towel, knelt down, and began wiping the sweat from Starlight's face.
"Good work today, Starlight-chan~"